The Detective and the Auror
by purpleplums
Summary: Three days to find the girl or Arthur loses his job. A vanishing girl, a car chase, a misfired gun and a mini explosion were the cause of Arthur's woes and the meeting of Merlin Emrys, an apparent escaped Comic Con attendee. It was a little too late when Arthur realized he was actually the "most powerful wizard Arthur will probably ever meet" according to Merlin.
1. Chapter 1

***Author's note: Hey guys, starting another fic because I can just never finish any of my works. ;^; Uh for anyone who's read the Kings' Insanity don't worry, it's not gonna be as messed up as that one (I write stuff that makes people go "wtf" when I'm out of ideas k? XDXD). For you wonderful wonderful human beings who have read through this little note just a reminder that reviews are the fuel for writing! If I get one review on a chapter I'll likely update early! For now, I'll try to update every two weeks. Alright, enough blabbering, please enjoy this work! P.S. I will change the horrendous title once my brain decides to work for me again.***

Arthur sipped his coffee with a scowl as the pitter-patter of a winter shower resonated around him. His eyes followed the synchronized window wipers back and forth as he contemplated and regretted every decision he has made in his life to get him in this position.

He's been shot at, spit on, beat up, kicked, scratched, stabbed, cut, knocked down, punched, and pepper sprayed (with his own pepper spray), all the while wearing a suit which earned him the title of Detective constable, the lowest rank of the CID and sent off as a patrol officer.

 _A patrol officer._

Then, amidst all his self-pitying, something caught his eye.

It might be the girl's luck that she was wearing such alarmingly gargantuan glasses which almost immediately caught Arthur's attention. But as she disappeared from Arthur's vision behind a large blue van from across the street, the stream of people from the sidewalk parted all their faces pale with horror before the blue van took off with a squeal of tires.

Everything was normal, except the fact that the girl with the huge glasses had now vanished

Without another thought Arthur started his car and stomped on the gas pedal as he chased the blue van down the street.

The van immediately noticed Arthur's pursuit and started veering past other vehicles to get forward. The smirk on Arthur's face only grew bigger. _Definitely guilty_.

The van twisted and turned in hopes of losing Arthur but Arthur's small Chevrolet (it was ancient, Arthur had no idea how the van wasn't outrunning him) was far easier to maneuver and since the path was already "cleared" by the van in front, it wasn't hard to see that Arthur was catching up by the second.

50 meters… 30 meters…

Arthur rolled his car window down before taking out his gun. Switching the safety off, he took his aim at the van's tire.

This was the moment Arthur's brain decided that it would be great to remind Arthur that he only had one bullet left in his gun.

So he steadied himself, took a deep breath, pulled the trigger and prayed for the best.

Apparently, God was busy at that moment because the bullet went straight for the tank of the van instead of its intended destination.

But to Arthur's pleasant surprise the car started swerving and eventually screeched to a stop with a violent jerk.

Arthur slid out of his car quickly and started approaching the van with his gun pointed at it. He could only hope that he could pull off the "I'm-a-rough-tough-police-with-a-fully-loaded-gun" act.

Turns out his self doubt was a complete waste of time because before he could open his mouth the van had already burst into flames in front of him before a mini explosion lit up the whole street.

"Shit."

"Detective constable Pendragon, how many times—

"Yes, yes, I should never act alone, especially without reporting."

"Pendragon! A young innocent lady had perished because of _you_."

"But you heard the forensics report, no human remains were found within the explosion! She's still out there, I know it."

The superintendent narrowed her eyes at Arthur before sneering. "Maybe there's nothing left of her to find. You'd do better as the "prince" of Camelot Mr. Pendragon."

Arthur took a deep breath. "Ma'am, please, if you'd give me five days…"

"What, you'll find the girl? Sorry but she's already found in that van you blew up yourself."

"Ma'am, I'll quit for good if I don't find her in 120 hours."

"Make it 72 hours."

Arthur bit his lips before quickly releasing it. "Deal."

The superintendent left with a curt nod and a smug smile slathered across her face leaving a very troubled Arthur sighing behind her almost bony silhouette.

"Looks like you'll need help."

Arthur quickly turned around at the unfamiliar voice. A lanky young man stood in front of him wearing a red and blue scarf, a black top lined with golden threads in several places and a captain's hat to top it all off. Quite frankly, his clothing was ridiculous.

"You're in the wrong place for Comic Con." Arthur raised an eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

The young man in front of him just rolled his eyes. "Nice to meet you too."

"So are you an officer I haven't met yet? Because civilians aren't allowed in the crime scene."

"Merlin Emrys, probably the greatest wizard you'll ever meet." Merlin extended a hand which Arthur took with a jeering look on his face.

"Well then, meet your King Arthur. _Merlin_."

"Your name is Arthur Pendragon? This must be destiny!" Arthur tried to look for even a trace of sarcasm on Merlin's face but all he could see was genuine surprise and wonder.

"Destiny yes. So-so what's your occupation?' Arthur's brows furrowed. The young man in front of him was beginning to really worry him because he seemed to be dead serious about everything he's said.

"Auror from the Ministry of Magic."

"Ok, I'll repeat myself. You're _really_ in the wrong place for Comic Con sir."

Merlin just groaned. "Of course you wouldn't believe me, you're just a muggle… but I thought that you'd, you know believe me since you're—

"I'm what?"

"You're blond, you've got a unpractical sense of justice, you're arrogant and probably a prat-hey, don't interrupt me, I can tell just by talking to you—

"What are you trying to say?"

"You're practically the reincarnation of King Arthur himself!"

Arthur sighed heavily pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure there are millions of people out there that fits your description. Look, just because my parents thought "hey look at our last name, would be a shame if we didn't name him Arthur!" doesn't automatically make me King Arthur."

Merlin just nodded earnestly. "I know, but there's something about you Arthur… I just can't put a finger on it."

"Well you definitely don't need to tell me when you've put your finger on it. I need to go examine the crime scene if I don't want to lose my job."

Arthur meant to leave the strange young man behind as he turned away to go examine the scene.

But things don't always go as planned.

As he bent down to examine the strange powder left everywhere a figure appeared behind him without warning.

"Floo powder…"

Arthur jumped a little at the sudden voice behind him. "How are you still here?"

"No one except for you seems to be too bothered by me." Merlin shrugged as he started scooping a little bit of the powder into a little Ziploc bag which he seemed to have conjured out of no where.

"Yes because no one except for me is treating this like a crime scene. Look, I don't know why you think you'll be able to help me because you can't. This is my job, not yours. You're an "Auror" whatever that is, so I suggest you stay out of this."

"First of all, this _is_ my job, I'm an Auror which in simple terms, a police officer of the magical world. Second of all, I know that girl's out there too so if you don't want to lose your job I suggest you work with me. There are things that you can't even imagine at work here, the disappearance of this young lady is only a miniscule part of the grand scheme of things." Merlin countered his patience running lower by the second.

Arthur's had enough. "Well, if you _really_ are a wizard, do a little incantation or something before you see that you're clearly insane which makes it my duty to send you to a mental—

"WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA."

This was the third time Arthur had been stunned speechless in his life. He was actually levitating three meters off the ground in front of a heaving Merlin with what seemed to be a wand pointed at him.

"I. Am. Not. Mental."

With a flick of the wand Merlin dropped Arthur to the ground and stormed away.

Arthur's brain turned on again after sitting dumbfounded on the ground for three seconds.

 _Crap crap crap crap._

 _he just angered an actual wizard._

"Hey, Merlin? Merlin!"

Arthur scrambled up on his feet chasing after the wizard who was getting farther and farther away.

"Merlin, look, I… apologize for what I said to you. It's just magic doesn't exist here… It's hard for us- uh non-magical—

"Muggles."

"What?"

"We call you "non-magical people" muggles."

"Now that's just offensive."

"What?"

"You can't just name us as a horrible brand of mugs." Arthur put on an expression of offense but it wasn't long before they both burst into laughter.

"So, am I forgiven? O' greatest wizard I'll probably ever meet?" Arthur feigned a bow looking up at Merlin who had a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"I'll take it under consideration."

"Merlin!"

 ***A reminder for reviews or just follow the story for early updates~ (wriggles eyebrows)***


	2. Chapter 2

***Note:** **WOw, I just wanted to first thank everyone for the follows and review! Probably my most well received fic ever! To celebrate the finishing of my Bio exam, I'm publishing the second chapter early! Thank you guys again!***

"So, floo powder, what is that?" Arthur asked trying to get Merlin to stop playing around with his car's radio. He was sure that one more twiddle and the whole thing will just explode right in their faces.

"Oh, it's a powder that allows wizards to travel within a system. Kind of like a bus, I mean we do have a Knight bus, but that's another story. With floo powder, you step into a fireplace, you say the place you want to go to, and throw the powder into the fireplace." Merlin started explaining and, to Arthur's relief, stopped playing around with his radio.

"So can we track where they went by analysing the floo powder somehow?" Arthur turned his head to Merlin with an excited look on his face, ah, the perks of having a wizard as a partner…

Wait, partner?

They're not partners!

"And I just want to make something clear, we're only in this together because we're dealing with magic. I'm actually breaking several rules just letting you come with me."

"Arthur, magic is everywhere. It's not something that's limited to me, the wizarding world or magical beings. It's woven into the very fabric of creation. You're gonna need me a lot more than you realize. Now and in the future." Merlin paused before opening his mouth again seeing that Arthur wanted to give a piece of his mind about what Merlin just said. "And yes, you can indeed track the whereabouts of the floo powder's user. That's why you're going to drop me off at somewhere secluded before going off to "run on a plate" or whatever."

"Run the plate, you mean."

"What's the difference? You muggles, I just can't fathom the lot of you out." Merlin shook his head with a "it-can't-be-helped" expression.

Arthur just rolled his eyes. "Where do you live? I can drop you off."

"Uh, well, I don't exactly have somewhere to live here yet… I mean, I can go to an inn but I have no idea how to get a room and plus, I think inns aren't private enough. Aren't there those security cameras everywhere?"

"Good point, wait, you have money? So you guys use the same currency as us? And why are you so intent on privacy now? You levitated me three meters off the ground in front of the entire CID and you didn't seem very worried about showing your magical abilities." Arthur screeched to a stop almost hitting a little old lady hobbling across the street.

"Ok, first, you are a horrible driver. Second, what's this? Twenty questions? If you don't know what to do with me where are we even going right now?"

"New Scotland Yard, I'm sure there'll be a spare room for you without security cameras."

"Alright." Merlin shrugged before adding. "I cast a spell around us so that no one could see or hear us back there."

"I knew it!"

The familiar sign of "New Scotland Yard" came into Arthur's view as his little white car rolled into the parking lot. The sky was grey as usual, but the raining had stopped which Arthur was thankful about.

Arthur led a "way-too-curious-for-his-own-good" Merlin down the corridors and into his office. Even though Arthur was just a constable, he was still a detective and the merited him a little office.

"Alright, I'm going to run the car's plate and you can track them down with that floo powder. How much time do you need?" Arthur had already settled in his desk and starting to turn on his work laptop.

"Not much. Why didn't you have your laptop in your car? I saw that all the other police cars had a laptop in them." Merlin took out the floo powder before carefully setting a little on a stool which he had brought beside Arthur's desk from the corner.

"Short answer, I forgot. I don't think you'll be interested in the long one." Arthur furrowed his brows as he scanned the screen for a third time. "This is very strange…"

"Locus Manufestio!" Merlin's eyes closed for a second before they fluttered open again. "I know their location!"

"Lovely, we hurry along there, save the girl, bring her back and case closed!" Arthur's eyes lightened as he took out his notepad and pen. "Address please."

"Trafalgar square…"

It wasn't really Arthur's fault to oversimplify the situation, because he's clearly never heard of the wise saying: Life is like maths, if it's too easy then something is wrong. Terribly wrong.

So it was on a grey cloudy day, in the middle of Trafalgar Square where Arthur stood across from a lady in a knights helmet with the girl bound up and kneeling beside her.

"Ma'am, hand her over and we promise you a safe return." Arthur really, really hoped that she would just hand the girl over. But life had a knack of being a prick.

"What can _you_ do to harm me?" A muffled but undoubtedly female voice came from within the helmet.

"I really don't want to make a scene here ma'am, I believe the best choice for you would be to hand me the girl." Arthur took a step forward, growing restless.

"If I hand her over you must promise to abandon the investigation." The woman stood her ground, if she was even the slightest intimidated she certainly wasn't showing it.

"I should arrest you right here and now, but if you hand me the girl, I promise not to arrest you."

A sneer came from the helmet as the lady crossed her arms. "I have powers you cannot even begin to imagine, what's your leverage? The law? How do you seek to control me with laws in which I do not abide?" Suddenly the woman stopped. "Oh, and it seems that we're playing two games here. If I didn't notice your queen you might've checkmated me, sir knight."

A choking sound came behind Arthur. To his horror, Merlin was being dragged out from behind Nelson's Column, the tips of his shoes barely touching the ground as the force pulled him along from the neck.

"Let him go. Now." In the blink of an eye, Arthur had pulled out his gun.

He could only hope that Merlin's spell was still in effect.

"Abandon the investigation." The woman tightened her held out hand.

Arthur spared a glance at Merlin who seemed to be on the verge of losing consciousness.

"I _will_ fire. Let him go, NOW." Arthur snarled.

The woman only tightened her hand even more.

That was the last straw.

A gunshot and a body slumped to the ground drew everyone's attention to this curious scene that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

There were two women, one bleeding on the ground and in a knight's helmet and the other bound up but running desperately towards the men on the other side, one heaving and the other spluttering on the ground.

Suddenly a dagger that seemed to have from thin are materialized in the running girl's hands. It was too late for the unsuspecting blond, bloodshed was inevitable.

"ARTHUR!" Merlin screamed, there was nothing he could do, it was too late to grab his wand, Arthur was going to die, die in front of his eyes… _again_.

Again?

The girl was suddenly thrown backwards and miraculously, Arthur stood in front of Merlin unscathed and in perfect health except for a racing heart and an adrenaline overload.

Merlin let out a huge sigh of relief as he got up from the ground.

"Stay still." Merlin croaked, his voice completely ruined for the day.

He pointed his wand towards the sky. "Obliviate."

The staring crowd suddenly dispersed as the people went back to their own business. Merlin turned to Arthur and gave him a funny look before shaking his head.

"Quick, let's go check on them both, you didn't kill that woman, right?" Merlin hurried over to the girl that had now completely changed. She was a completely different person, but most of all, she was dead. Merlin quickly found the Polyjuice and with one whiff, he could tell that the flask was laced with poison. This was a suicide mission.

Merlin cast a look at Arthur who hurried over to the unconscious woman before taking off her helmet.

The kidnapped girl, now without her glasses lay there, unconscious and pale as death.

 ***Remember to leave a review or follow the story for early updates! ;)***


	3. Chapter 3

The air seemed to freeze around them as the new information settled into their brains, this was bad. Really, really bad.

"Quick, can't you heal her with your magic or something?" Arthur looked desperately to Merlin who stared back at him with equal desperation.

"I'm rubbish at healing spells! I'd do her more harm than good!"

"G—give me your scarf!" Arthur's hand was twitching as he almost snatched Merlin's scarf out of his hands and pressed it on the gun wound.

"Call 911." Arthur gave Merlin his phone before quickly realizing that Merlin had no idea what to do with what seemed to him, a glowing metal box.

"Apply pressure to the wound." Arthur quickly snatched his phone out of Merlin's hands before dialing in 911 with his own trembling fingers.

It felt like a lifetime had passed before the ambulance finally arrived along with a police car.

"Pendragon, it seems that you have found the girl."

Arthur knew exactly who had approached him without eve turning around, only Superintendent Annis Caerleon had the ability to wear a 10cm heels at a crime scene.

"I have ma'am, but I'm afraid she's in critical condition…" Arthur sighed, Caerleon's appearance had never bode well for him.

An eyebrow shot up on Caerleon's pale, bony face, Arthur knew he better have a good explanation for this or he was definitely going to lose this job and give his father the satisfaction that he was, indeed, just the 'prince of Camelot'.

"Ma'am, would you like to hear the absurd truth or a believable lie?" Judging by the unimpressed look on her face, Arthur knew that he had officially taken a step towards unemployment.

"This isn't a philosophy discussion Pendragon, I want the cold hard facts, organized and precise."

"Well then, I want you to first understand the fact that magic exists— Please, ma'am, just give me a chance."

The Superintendent still looked extremely unimpressed, but she reluctantly put on a 'I'm listening' face.

So Arthur started explaining everything but left Merlin out of the entire narrative, the superintendent really didn't need to know that he had let an 'outsider' in on this case.

Arthur was pleasantly surprised after he had finished his explanation that Merlin hadn't tried even once to interrupt Arthur. But his face fell as he quickly realized that Merlin was gone, a sudden feeling of a parent losing their kid surged in Arthur as he quickly scanned the square that was devoid of Merlin.

"Are you looking for someone?"

That snapped Arthur's attention back to his commander.

"No ma'am, I was just, surveying our surroundings."

Caerleon narrowed her eyes putting on an expression of distrust. "You're hiding something from me Pendragon, I can smell it."

Arthur sighed. He was probably the worst liar the world has ever seen. "I… was given assistance during my investigation, and the fact that he isn't here now probably means that he wishes to remain anonymous."

"Why should I trust him?"

"Because we found the girl that you claimed to have perished."

The superintendent shook her head. "You better pray that the young lady wakes up. If she doesn't the press will give us hell."

Arthur immediately fell silent, it seemed that even with the girl found, his job was still on the line. How would he explain the girl's death? There was a woman holding who we believed to be the abductee as hostage and refused to cooperate, so I had to shoot her, but it turns out the "hostage" was actually an assassin who had transformed her looks to be that of the abductee's and the woman was actually the abductee all along. Also, magic is real. Good day to you all ladies and gentlemen.

Arthur almost wanted to laugh.

 _But the Superintendent believes him… right?_

"Ma'am, you seemed to have taken my stance on…um magic's actualities quite well…" It really wasn't hard to tell that Arthur had no idea how to word this but Caerleon just smiled knowingly.

"You didn't look like you were lying and if you lied, I'd know, wouldn't I? You're an honest young man Pendragon, it's a shame the world doesn't value that much anymore."

Arthur fought the urge to pinch himself, Caerleon has never _ever_ complimented him before, probably because of her affiliations with his father, but they've never seen eye to eye even when Arthur was just a seven-year-old. Even more so now because she had probably been using every trick up her sleeve to fire him, so he could go back to be his father's obedient, loving son.

But that would never happen again. Not after what happened to Morgana.

Arthur's eyes frosted up for a moment before melting into a vat of galaxies again. He sighed, nothing was going anywhere.

"Take heart Arthur, prove yourself to me and I'll never get in your way again. Finish this investigation; I look forward to you proving all of us who ever doubted you wrong." Arthur could see a gleam in the elder woman's stern eyes before she turned around and sauntered away like a queen approaching her chariot in those impossible heels of hers.

"Wow, she's inspirational."

Arthur didn't even bother with trying to hide his surprise at Merlin's suddenly appearing figure.

"Jesus Merlin, you _have_ to stop appearing like that if you want to spare me a heart attack."

"Don't worry, I have magic."

"You just said that you were rubbish at healing magic!"

Merlin smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "Right, um, well in that case I'll just put some protective spells around you…"

"Wait, I remember!"

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "You'll have to elaborate."

"I'm always like this, my mind gets distracted and I forget what I wanted to say. Point is, you know that assassin that tried to get to you?"

"Uh huh."

"It seems, ok this is crazy even to me, but my magic deflected her away."

Arthur just looked at him incredulously. "I know I wasn't the most pleasant being when we first met but that's a lot of grudge to harbour against a guy who you had just met."

"No, I, well I'd—well, more specifically my magic would— probably go insane if you were actually hurt… anyways, as much as I wanted to save you, it was too late, I don't have the capabilities to focus my magic like that without my wand and what repelled that assassin was an ancient and extremely powerful spell. I would've taken back my "Merlin Emrys, probably the greatest wizard you'll ever meet" back after seeing that you're protected by such a powerful wizard or witch but that… that was undoubtedly my magic."

"You would- I mean your magic would go insane… if I was hurt…?" Arthur tilted his head in bewilderment, that's some pretty heavy words to say to a guy you've only met for a couple hours.

"You're completely missing the point but yes, I can't explain the feeling, but when I finally came around only to see you almost being stabbed to death by someone else my magic almost felt like it wanted to jump out of my body to stop you from getting hurt. Speaking of which…"

With a snap of Merlin's fingers, a flower crown of forget-me-nots and roses appeared on Arthur's head of golden hair.

"What the…"

"Sorry, I can't really help it." Merlin shrugged with a wry smile. "I try to let my magic run as freely as possible."

"You are _such_ a girl Merlin." Arthur just laughed as he placed the flowers on Merlin's mop of raven hair. "There, a pretty little flower crown for our very masculine, not at all feminine warlock."

"Thank you, your highness, I shall wear it with pride." Merlin took one of Arthur's hands and pressed his lips lightly on it before running off with a mischievous smile slathered across his face.

It took Arthur a moment to realized that was the way of greeting ladies a long time ago… Merlin was so dead.


	4. Chapter 4

***Note: Sorry for the late update! I just felt like this chapter came out so hard for me and even with two hours on the bus each day I couldn't keep writing. I guess I just suck at action stuff. XDXD More character development (I hope) for Merlin but their backstories are still a secret. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this overdue chapter and please leave a review or follow this story if you like it! Any support is very very appreciated!***

"Do all you wizards and witches have a manual of "How to find the weirdest clothing" tucked away in your little hut?" Arthur hissed as they hid behind a wide concrete pillar from a bombardment of spells cast by three wizards and a witch who had clearly, just come back from their exile to Hot Topic.

"First of all, there is no such manual. Second, we do not live in HUTS."

Ah, you know there is true love friendship when you're four very angry magical beings bent on killing you away from dying but you're still arguing about the fashion choices of your attackers.

Merlin managed to twist around and fired one paralyzing spell before a barrage of killing and maiming spells were blasted at where he had stuck his head out a second ago.

"Ok, that's not gonna work." Merlin said breathlessly eyeing the missing chunk of concrete apprehensively as he tried to calm his fleeing heart.

"I'll cover for you, and you do your spell and wand thing." Arthur flipped the safety off.

"3, 2, 1."

The sound of gunfire joined the incantations before Merlin quickly started shooting off spell after spell at their attackers.

Soon three of them had fallen unconscious to the ground, only one wizard remained standing trying to slink back from Merlin and Arthur's combined attacks.

"Expelliarmus!"

Arthur froze at the flash of the wand. He wanted to duck, to get out of the way and curse all the times he slept through his Latin classes but none of that happened as Arthur merely stood there paralyzed for a few seconds too long.

All of a sudden, what seemed to be a golden shield appeared and absorbed the spell before vanishing without a trace. If not for Merlin's stunned face and the wizard stopping his attacks, Arthur would've believed that that was only a figment of his imagination.

Merlin, who had seen the powerful spell in action was several paces ahead of the wizard and was therefore able to quickly disarm and bound the wizard up with a "incarcerous" before he could do anything else.

Merlin stepped up to the now bound wizard and revealed his face from under the heavy hood with one swift movement of his hand.

The wizard's face was haggard and lean, there was something strange about the way he held himself. Arthur had no idea what was off but something, something was not right.

Merlin took tiny pouch from his pocket and pulled out the knight's helmet worn by the girl under Arthur's incredulous gaze. The helmet landed on the dusty ground with a clunk.

"Now." Merlin's wand was pressed against the wizard's bobbing throat, his eyes steely and interrogating. "Speak."

"Try anything funny, and we'll see what happens."

Arthur hid his shock at Merlin's transformation. His usual witty and carefree attitude was long gone, all that was left in his eyes was a coolness that Arthur did not care to have directed at him.

The wizard merely laughed, he laughed until he wheezed and coughed. "Our lady has predicted everything… this time Emrys, this time you'll lose again, but not just this underserving mortal. Everything that you are and was will be lost. Without losing… you'll never bring about the golden age of Albion."

"Your lady, is she a seer? Why was this address carved onto the helmet?" Merlin pressed on clearly unimpressed with the wizard's cryptic blabbering.

"Our lady sees all, she sees what is, what was and what will be. Nothing that happens from now on will be a coincidence. Even the words I speak now has been long predicted. Now if you'll excuse me gentle men…"

The wizard was interrupted by his own hacking coughs. Both Merlin and Arthur's eyes widened slightly as blood started appearing on the ground.

"Oh my god, we can't let him die on us, he's our only source of information!" Arthur wanted to tear his hair out at the absurd amount of people being poisoned on this case.

Merlin had already whipped out a lumpy stone and was in the process of shoving it down the reluctant wizard's throat.

If the situation wasn't so serious Arthur would've laughed at Merlin's futile efforts. But he refrained from doing so because first of all, the situation was dire and second of all, Merlin looked like he was ready to rip the other wizard's mouth open.

It took another moment for Merlin to force his mouth open and quickly pop the bezoar in before closing his mouth and trying to make him swallow.

A death glare sent from Merlin urged Arthur to help even though he had no idea how to make the wizard who seemed pretty intent on dying to swallow whatever Merlin had just shoved down his throat.

"Stop standing like a useless toad and come help me make him swallow! Don't you know that first aid thing?"

"First aid is meant to save people!"

"Which is exactly what I'm trying to do!"

"Look, I'm sorry but I don't know what to do. I think it's best that we call an ambulance."

"He's poisoned with _magic_ Arthur, your muggle medicine isn't gonna do a lot for him. We just need to get him to swallow the bezoar." Merlin was clamping the wizard's mouth shut while Arthur was trying to hold him in place.

*Chomp*

Merlin pulled his hands back with a hiss before the bound-up wizard coughed up a bloody blob along with the bezoar.

Then, he went limp in Arthur's grasp.

Arthur tried to feel for his breath first and then his pulse. Neither held any sign of life.

He shook his head solemnly at Merlin whose gaze fell to the floor. They looked around at the other wizards and witch who were taken down and had probably already died from the same poison that killed their once conscious colleague.

Merlin stood up, his hands balled and unballed as he tried to bottle up his anger, disappointment and frustration deep within himself. Now was not the time to let himself drown in these feelings.

"Merlin, I can see this case means a lot to you, as it does to me. This isn't our only string that can be followed." Arthur tried to console Merlin whose back was turned to him. The young man's back was hunched as if being crushed under the sheer feeling of disappointment.

There was a pause in the air before Merlin suddenly turned around and slammed his hat into the ground.

"Damnit Arthur! You don't understand! You'll never understand!"

Merlin's chest was rising and falling from the exertion of his outburst.

"None of my family's crazy, I-I'm not crazy… I'll prove them wrong! I'll prove them all wrong!…I have to..."

Silence settled between them once again before Arthur knelt and picked up Merlin's hat.

"As ridiculous as this hat is, I think it looks good on you. Let's keep it there." Arthur smiled briefly as he offered up the hat to Merlin who took it into his hands slowly and pressed it to his chest. His eyes were still pained but they no longer held a desperate and hopeless look to them.

"Whenever my father he left on a mission he would give the hat to me for safekeeping, it kept me hopeful of his return." Merlin smiled at the hat before sighing and securing the hat on his head again.

"Failure isn't something to fear, hopelessness is."

Merlin's back had straightened again, making him just a bit taller than Arthur.

"That's the spirit. Now, we search them, take back what we think could be evidence and crack this case." Arthur gave Merlin's shoulder a punch which just earned him a confused look from the other man.

"Ow! you do realize that cases, hell, life in general doesn't work like that."

"Yeah, but it's nice pretending." Arthur smiled shrugging.

Merlin gave Arthur an empathetic look before he started going around collecting all of their wands and putting them all in his tiny pouch.

Arthur was in the process of rummaging through the wizard's pockets before Merlin came up to him.

"There's no need Arthur, I've dealt with them before. They don't carry anything that can count as evidence except for their wands." Merlin said as Arthur stood up.

"Can you tell what spells they've used by the wand?"

"Yep, you can usually only tell for the last two to three days. The time period really depends on the wand, but I find that wands with unicorn core have the best memories which is unfortunate because I'm guessing that with the way they turned out, none of them had a wand with a unicorn hair core."

"I'll have to inquire about the wand cores at another time but look- their boots are all wet." Arthur pointed out to Merlin and sure enough, all of their boots were wet.

"Yeah, it was raining this morning." Merlin arched an eyebrow at Arthur who looked exasperated.

"Look, even though their boots were wet the rest of their clothing are dry, they don't have umbrellas, so they were probably indoors. If they were indoors—

"Their boots shouldn't be wet." Merlin looked to a pretty cocky Arthur as a thought suddenly dawned upon him.

"Arthur, I think I have an idea of their last destination."

"Just wait Merlin, I have something else to show you. a on my laptop, in the car."

So they started towards Arthur's little stead and quickly slid in As Arthur started pulling up the report on the blue van.

"Look, the van was reported missing three years ago and was actually found but never given back to the owner." Arthur pointed towards the screen as Merlin inched in closer to read.

"Why wasn't it given back?"

"The report doesn't say, everything about the car's extremely vague, it just reeks of government intervention."

Arthur quickly scrolled to the bottom of the report as if to prove to Merlin how short and vague it was.

"Wait, can you scroll up to the picture again?" Merlin's eyebrows furrowed as he saw something on the picture of the plate of the car.

Arthur complied, and a grin appeared on Merlin's face as he confirmed what he thought he had seen.

"Well, well, looks like we owe the Ministry a visit."


	5. Chapter 5

**Super sorry about the bad formatting! I've posted this again, hopefully it'll work this time! And again, I am terribly sorry about the late updates and I think that I'll be able to update more frequently from now on! Reviews, follows and favourites will definitely ensure that so keep 'em coming. XDXD Anyways, as always, please enjoy!**

"This is the first and last time I'll let anyone flush me down a goddamn toilet." Arthur spat as he gestured vehemently towards Merlin whose face was flushed from holding back his laughter.

"Your face—

" _Shut up_."

Merlin continued to wear his cheeky smile that made part of Arthur want to punch his cheekbones in and the other part of him wanting to punch himself for even having that thought. It was just driving Arthur absolutely nuts.

Merlin quickly shushed Arthur's further grumblings not wanting to draw attention to the two of them. He had draped a robe around Arthur to make him look more "wizard-like" but Arthur just thought that Merlin was trying to get him to conform to their frankly ridiculous sense of fashion.

But even all this couldn't stop him from staring in awe at all the magic in this building, there was everything from autopilot paper airplanes to seemingly random animals scattered about transforming into humans and vice versa. The things he thought that only existed in stories and a child's fantasies were happening right before his eyes!

Arthur had no idea why Merlin would be so interested in their technology if this is what he sees and experiences on a daily basis.

"Arthur stop gawking at everything like a muggle, you're a wizard now, remember?" Merlin hissed beside Arthur's ear snapping him back to reality.

"Ha, says the person who wouldn't stop staring at a rubber duckie."

"No wander you're such a prat, it's hard not to be one when your only friend is a rubber duck named Pen-pen." Merlin smirked at Arthur who was spluttering incredulously, Merlin had clearly won this round.

"I'd rather no friends than have people around me who can only see me for my last name."

Merlin just raised an eyebrow. "You're father's a king?"

"No, but he certainly behaves like one, a pretty tyrannical one at that." Arthur sighed as they continued to squeeze past the torrent of wizards and witches going the other way, it was the evening already and everyone just wanted to get home.

"Ah, still not over our teenage angst, are we?" Even Arthur smiled a bit at that as the realization that he will probably never win against Merlin when it comes to sassing someone sank in.

They had left the large hall with the fountain behind them now as they passed through the monothematic passageways paved from the ceiling to floor with black glossy bricks. Arthur couldn't help but gape at the strange architectural designs even though he and Merlin had talked about this when Arthur took them both to his little flat in which Merlin had promptly announced that he would be staying in until the case was solved. Arthur begrudgingly agreed on the terms that he not touch anything without Arthur's supervision.

Right now, they were heading towards the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, that blue van had been taken in by the Ministry of Magic when a wizard had charmed the inside of the van to be larger than it was originally. But the real problem was that the van wasn't the wizard's van. So, putting two and two together, Arthur speculated that since magic was involved, the government probably compensated the van's owner with some money or other thing of value to keep them silent and turned the van to this ministry to deal with.

How it ended back on the streets of London, driven around by a bunch of evil punk wizards is what they're trying to figure out.

After they got off the elevator, and made a few more turns, the department was finally in view. It was quite small, clearly underfunded, but it seemed that Merlin and probably other aurors frequently made an appearance here as the old man at the front desk merely gave Merlin a sleepy nod of acknowledgment before dozing off once more on his arms.

"Hey, Mr. Monmouth? Mr. Monmouth?" Merlin shook the snoring man awake by the shoulders. "It's five O' clock already."

"Oh what's the difference, I sleep with my books at home anyways." The older man grumbled trying to bury his face even deeper into his arms before he suddenly snapped his head up as he caught sight of Arthur.

"Merlin! You didn't say we had visitors!" The older man squawked shooting a pointed look at Merlin before clearing his throat and directing his attention to Arthur. "I'm terrible sorry…

"Arthur, Arthur Pendragon." Arthur had been taught how to manoeuvre out of awkward conversations since birth, he's kept a clear track of not being caught in any yet, he'd like to keep it that way.

"Geoffrey Monmouth, pleasure." The old man had stood up now and extended a hand towards Arthur which Arthur immediately took and shook formally. But it wasn't until he was halfway done shaking before he saw the horrified look on Merlin's face.

" _Merlin_! You brought a—hmff."

Arthur raised an eyebrow at the sight before him. Merlin had covered Mr. Monmouth's mouth with one of his hands while he brought the index finger of his other hand to his lips and made a harsh "shhh" sound.

"Please Mr. Monmouth, he can be trusted. Do a favour for your favourite student will you?" Merlin pleaded looking at his former teacher with big eyes before the other nodded with a roll of eyes.

"How many favours is it now Merlin? Three? And look where they got you." Monmouth sighed before settling in his desk once more. "Moody's dead already, your parents wouldn't want this."

Merlin froze for a second before he smiled again like he hadn't heard anything.

"Please just keep ol' Kilghy off my radar for now. I really don't need him on my tail right."

The old man sighed before nodding slightly and burying himself inside his books.

"Alright, Arthur, let's get working." Merlin announced with an unnatural cheer as he lead Arthur into a room filled with everyday objects all either chained or encaged.

Arthur was about to question this strange arrangement before all of them came alive. The once still tea kettles whistled and steamed as the slippers slammed themselves against their cages. Arthur let out a yelp of surprise before quickly silencing himself which earned an amused chuckle from Merlin.

But they quickly left the room and entered into another one which was slightly larger than the last but seemed way more crammed because of the sheer number of files crammed into the clearly second-hand book-shelves lining the walls.

"Huh, wizards really tend to misuse "muggle artefacts", I'm surprised that we haven't caught wind of anything suspicious yet." Arthur raised an eyebrow as he took a file from the shelf and started flipping through it. It was apparently about a regurgitating toilet.

"We have a division to deal with that kind of things. The spell 'obliviate' is quite useful when it comes to dealing with muggles." Merlin explained as he headed straight towards one particular bookshelf. "Some of these files date back to Queen Guinevere's times I wouldn't touch the files in the bookshelves on the right side of the room. They might crumble just by touch."

"Queen Guinevere? As in Queen Guinevere of Camelot, wife of King Arthur?" Arthur laughed. "Merlin, those are stuffs of legend, no one even knows for certain if this Arthur guy existed at all."

"You'd be surprised." Merlin muttered as he went through the files. Before Arthur could reply Merlin had already taken a file out.

"Hopefully this will be more thorough than your file." Merlin said as he flipped it open and handed Arthur some of the papers.

To their pleasant surprise, this file was quite thorough. It documented the van's handing over and its containment. Since it was too large to be kept in the tiny department. The funny thing was that the file stated that the van was destroyed since the misuser had already been caught and fined.

"Well that never happened." Arthur said as he set the papers back down.

"So they were going to destroy it, but before that it was stored in the Hall of Prophecy… That's probably where they stole the van. It was all over the news how the Hall of Prophecy was broken in just yesterday." Merlin set his papers down too as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "What I don't get is how the file claims it to be destroyed…"

"Wait, so if I heard you correctly then the news didn't cover the stolen van but only said that the Prophecy Hall was broken in? How did no one notice a bright blue, huge ass truck missing?"

"The Prophecy Hall is huge, no one would notice a blue van missing, especially not a blue van that had been "destroyed" already." Merlin brushed Arthur's question aside as he mumbled to himself. "So if those wizards had broken into the Prophecy Hall and taken the van as a means of escape… no, there's something wrong. Why would they take the van, and why would the van be so conveniently "destroyed"?"

"Maybe there was something about that truck that they purposefully wanted and so they faked the record to get their hands on it…" Arthur speculated before his face suddenly brightened up. "Merlin, what if the van was never made it there in the first place? That's why no one noticed it missing, it just simply wasn't there."

"What are you saying? The aurors were tasked with taking the van to the room…" Merlin's eyes grew wide in realization.

"No…"

"Yes." Arthur's eyes froze over. "There's a traitor in your midst."


End file.
